Bilingualism debate heats up on Parliament Hill as Tories study NDP bill

OTTAWA – The bilingualism debate is heating up on Parliament Hill in the wake of new data suggesting English Canadians are losing interest in French, and amid media reports that Prime Minister Stephen Harper feels it was a “mistake” to appoint unilingual anglophones to senior positions such as the office of the auditor general and the Supreme Court.

Harper reportedly made his comment after several cabinet ministers told the Tory caucus last week that the government would support legislation introduced by the NDP to require that all officers of Parliament be functionally bilingual.

While Quebec Tories, such as cabinet minister Maxime Bernier and Senator Leo Housakos, have publicly supported the NDP proposal, MPs from Ontario, such as Conservative Larry Miller, feel parliamentary officers only need to speak one of Canada’s two official languages.

Alexandrine Latendresse, an NDP MP from Quebec City who introduced the legislation on bilingualism, said Friday, “Most of the Quebec MPs, even in the Conservative caucus, seemed to be in agreement” with the NDP bill. “So I imagine that they wound up understanding that it was something important and we’re really happy about it.”

Harper’s office downplayed a report in Montreal’s  La Presse that said the prime minister recognized making a mistake.

“What happens in caucus remains in caucus,” said Harper’s spokesman Carl Vallee. “We are still studying the NDP bill.”

Treasury Board President Tony Clement, the lead minister on the issue, declined to say what sort of amendments the government might propose to Latendresse’s private member’s bill.

“Our government remains committed to Canada’s official languages,” said Clement’s spokeswoman Beverly Young, in an email. “We seek applications from bilingual Canadians, but in the end, we select the most deserving applicants — appointments are approved by Parliament.”

The federal government has an obligation, under its official languages legislation adopted in 1969, to protect the vitality of minority English and French communities across the country, in part by protecting access to services in the official language of their choice.

But the controversy over unilingual appointments is heating up just as the newly elected Parti Quebecois government in Quebec muses about strengthening the province’s French language laws. It also coincides with new census figures that suggest bilingualism has stalled outside of Quebec.

Michael Ferguson, the auditor general, struggled to answer questions in French this week during a news conference and later at a parliamentary committee.

“Thanks um and, ah of course, um ah umm the government ahh—“ Ferguson said to a House of Commons committee in French on Thursday, in response to a question from Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, an NDP MP from Montreal. She was asking about potential threats to old age security within the government’s finances.

Blanchette-Lamothe promptly cut him off.

“Mr. Ferguson, I appreciate very much your effort to speak in French, but unfortunately, I think the committee is not the place to practise,” she said, switching to English. “So is it possible to ask you to answer in English during my five minutes, and maybe, practise another time?”

Harper’s office, meantime, suggested that the NDP shouldn’t be lecturing anyone about bilingualism.

“This same (New Democratic) Party presented unilingual anglophone candidates in Quebec during the last election,” Vallee said.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza